Photos by Ralph Freso
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally appeared in the February issue of GCU Magazine, available in the purple bins across campus or digitally.
Anna Gibb, Olivia Willingham and Leah Peterson barreled their way through Grand Canyon University's challenging nursing program together. Now they're doing the same in their professional careers, working on the same hospital floor.
The 2023 graduates are making an impact at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center as telemetry nurses at the hospital's Barrow Neurological Institute, the world's largest dedicated neurological disease treatment and research institution.
Trading GCU purple scrubs for official hospital gray scrubs, they met as students, became coworkers and grew into professionals together.
"I remember thinking before I started working how nervous I was about who I will work with and if everyone is going to be so much older than me," Willingham said.
"Getting there and seeing people from GCU, knowing Anna and Leah were on my floor, made it so much more comfortable and calmed my nerves. It was a relief because I was not expecting to know so many people."
In the third year of the nursing program, the College of Nursing and Health Care Professions places students in cohorts; they attend classes, labs and clinicals with the same group for the remainder of their time in college.
They delve into clinicals at local hospitals, where they work with professional nurses and interact with patients.
That creates a strong bond within the cohort.
Once they graduate, the students have the option of applying to work at those same hospitals full time.
For Gibb, Willingham and Peterson, landing a job at a hospital already familiar to them was ideal.
"This job is new, and it was a lot at first, but having a little bit of comfortability of knowing the hospital and how things work because of my clinicals is a blessing," Gibb said. "I had a lot of clinicals at St. Joseph's, and I like that aspect because I now work at the same place where I went to school."
As telemetry nurses -- they care for patients who require continuous cardiac and vital sign monitoring -- Gibb, Willingham and Peterson often work on cases involving brain and spinal injuries and strokes.
They begin their day with a group huddle to receive case reports and assignments, then complete their rounds checking on patients and distributing medications while continually charting.
Each nurse has her own four patients, but because the floor is circular, most nurses interact and help one another when they need support, Gibb said. When Willingham and Gibb are done with their day shifts, Peterson steps in to take care of those same patients as a nightshift nurse.
It's all a team effort.
"They come and I go. It's helpful because you get that continuity of care," Peterson said. "You are able to take care of the same patients that you already know, and that makes the night easier.
"In clinicals, we would share stories on what would happen during the day and feed off each other - and we still do that now. Knowing GCU people has helped take some nerves off with starting this job, and I have felt more comfortable."
Some days can be overwhelming. Different cases flood the hospital daily, so it's always a learning process, as it was at GCU.
Willingham said, "A lot of people say you learn everything on the job, which is true to a certain extent because every floor and position is different, but I feel GCU did a great job preparing us in every way they could. It was focused on holistic care and patient well-being, which is the center of all of your care. That emphasis really helped prepare me."
The three nurses are reminded of their GCU roots working with fellow graduates, but even more so when current GCU nursing students are at St. Joseph's for their clinicals.
The alumnae get to mentor them the same way they were mentored as students.
"It's cool to be able to bond with them about GCU classes, professors and telling them what it's been like," Gibb said. "It helps me give them grace, seeing that I was just in their shoes like ... yesterday."
Grueling days, complicated cases and sometimes difficult patients can take a toll on nurses' well-being. But through it all, faith has kept them grounded.
Gibb, Willingham and Peterson appreciate the glimpses of faith incorporated at St. Joseph's, whose roots are in the Catholic faith.
Nightly prayer shared on big speakers, patients requesting chaplains to come talk to them, or patients sometimes openly talking about their faith, reminds them of the importance and stability found in faith.
"The medical field and faith can be very touchy for people, so it has been nice working at a hospital that incorporates it all," Gibb said.
All three have conveyed that to fulfill their calling into the nursing profession after completing a rigorous nursing program at GCU, then working alongside your friends, has been a blessing.
Their bonds have become even stronger.
But Peterson said being a nurse bonds her to something deeper.
"When I was younger, I spent some time in the ICU myself. I liked all the nurses who took care of me, and now this is my way to give back," she said. "I knew I wanted to do something where I was making an impact every day and doing something that really matters to me."
GCU staff writer Izabela Fogarasi can be reached at Izabela.Fogarasi@gcu.edu
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